Newsbites

Students in four Israeli medical schools are missing basic science lectures as academics strike over pay. “If they don't study everything they have to learn, they cannot graduate. We can't give them a break,” said Pablo Yagupsky, acting dean of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's Health Sciences Faculty. A delay in graduation may damage the health system, which is already short of doctors in certain specialties, according to senior academics.

Professor Yagupsky said physicians at the medical school were providing some teaching but that it was not enough to replace the academic senior lecturers. Student unions have been arranging extra courses to make up missed material, and have tried to win commitments from their universities to help undergraduates make up for lost time (www.jpost.com).